Natural Disasters theme in two volumes is a component of Encyclopedia of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. Natural hazards arise unexpectedly, without any discernible regularity, and leave an indelible trace in nature, sometimes for many decades to come. At present they are appreciably complicated by anthropogenic influence, lending them an adverse and often catastrophic character. The susceptibility of a society to the impact of natural disasters is conditioned by the natural environment, and the vulnerability of the society to such phenomena is historically associated with the type of the nature management. Natural disasters can be of geological and hydrometeorological origin; the specific group of such phenomena is presented by natural disasters in mountains. This volume deals with the natural disaster and covers several topics, with a myriad of issues of great relevance to our world such as: Geological Catastrophes; Climate-Related Hazards; Mountain Disasters and Snow Avalanches, which are then expanded into multiple subtopics, each as a chapter. These two volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College Students Educators, Professional Practitioners, Research Personnel and Policy Analysts, Managers, and Decision Makers, NGOs and GOs.

Disaster management involves the mitigation of effects of a calamity using an integrative strategy involving both human and materialistic resources. This book presents an overview of crucial disaster management issues. Original research reports by international scholars focused on disaster management present important facets of danger and disaster management. It discusses perspectives on vulnerability and advancing approaches to mitigation, approaches to improve data use and information management in distinct applications aimed at promoting prediction and communication of hazard, and the management of crisis and post-event recovery in private sector, in the design of urban space and among the victims of a disaster. This book contributes theoretical as well as practical updates to the existing disaster management literature.

We speak of earthquakes, floods, and wildfires as 'natural disasters'. In this provocative book, Ilan Kelman argues that the true disaster is not caused by natural phenomena, but by human choices which leave people unprepared and at terrible risk. He explores how we can and should act to stop people dying when nature unleashes its powers.

In mountainous areas, due to the unique geological and topographical conditions, and along with the impact of global climate change, extreme rainfall events often occur and induce natural disasters such as flash floods, debris flows, landslides, dammed lakes and others. These water-related natural disasters (WRNDs) frequently occur around the world, such as the July 29th 1998 debris flow and landslide dam at Capricorn Creek in Mount Meager Volcanic Complex (southern Canada), the flash flood of 20th August 2018 in Raganello Gorge (southern Italy), and the 2007 summer floods in the United Kingdom. WRNDs are more serious in Southeast Asia particularly in Southwest China, where many places suffer from such disasters in the flood season every year, such as the May 20th 2012 flash flood/debris flow among the hit area of Wenchuan earthquake, the June 24th 2017 Xinmo Catastrophic landslide in Mao county and in 2018 the two sequential landslide-dammed lake events at Jinsha River. These WRNDs not only cause heavy casualties and property losses but also destroy the ecological environment. These WRNDs are not only the concern of government managers and engineers, but also deserve more in-depth study from researchers. Formation and evolution mechanisms of WRNDs are very complicated, and influenced by several aspects, such as geological and topographical conditions, hydrometeorological conditions, geomaterial properties, rainfall history and flow condition, and others. Field and laboratory tests can help us to better understand the related mechanism behind the disasters. Theoretical and empirical models, modeling and numerical methods can provide more reasonable evaluation and forecasting results of WRNDs, but a more in-depth understanding is needed. Furthermore, for the risk control and hazard prevention and mitigation, new equipment and technologies have been developed and have achieved some progress in recent years, but the fast and effective emergency treatments for WRNDs need more attention.

Natural disasters are those caused by nature. Examples of which are earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. They cannot be avoided but extent of damages can be curbed depending on the level of human preparedness. In this book, you will read about some of the worst natural disasters recorded in history. Let’s get started!